Ángel Tavira

Was born into a musical family; his grandfather Juan Bartolo Tavira was a prolific harpist/lyricist and developed a style of music known as Calentano, the music of Mexico's Tierra Caliente region, which straddles the states of Guerrero and Michoacan. There are several stories as to how Angel lost his right hand, but he has been without it for most or all of his adult life and is a very able violinist. He connects his bow to his 'stump' using a fabric strap, as seen in the movie "El Violin". As a young man, he played violin in one of the most widely known traditional bands of the region, Poker de Aces. Later, he moved away from the Tierra Caliente, to nearby Iguala, Guerrero, where he taught music in a secondary school for many years and raised a large family. He retired from teaching decades ago, but continues to perform and record traditional Calentano music with his sons Luis and Daniel, and daughter Margarita. Francisco Vargas produced a documentary about Angel before writing "El Violin" as a vehicle for his newly discovered muse. Angel continues to live in a modest duplex in a teachers' housing subdivision in Iguala, Guerrero. He is teaching his grandchildren to play violin in the Calentano style. As of February '08, he has just wrapped on a small part in a movie called "La Morenita".